Bachelet way ahead of the pack, but Chile runoff likely: poll

By Alexandra Ulmer SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Popular center-left candidate Michelle Bachelet is poised to win Chile’s presidential election next month, but eight other candidates jostling in the first round may push the vote to a runoff, a poll showed on Thursday. Bachelet, who was Chile’s first female president from 2006 to 2010, would draw 37.7 percent of votes in the November 17 general election, according to a poll by the Universidad Diego Portales (UDP). Bachelet would need to garner more than 50 percent of votes to avoid a runoff, which no candidate has done since 1993. …